Cloth $115.00ISBN: 9781447326601
Published
January 2016
For sale in North and South America only

Over the past few decades, governments in many nations have increasingly delegated political decisions to expert agencies, portraying the issues they deal with—such as drug policy or monetary policy—as technocratic or managerial in nature. This has had the effect of essentially removing a large number of important political decisions from public debate—a situation that has led many commentators to worry about a “crisis of democracy,” or, even worse, the “end of politics.” This book offers a nuanced perspective on that situation, charting the dynamics of politicization and depoliticization that shape debates about governance, participation, and the liberal democratic state.

10. Depoliticisation as process, governance as practice: what did the 'first wave' get wrong and do we need a 'second wave' to put it right? Colin Hay

Conclusion: Thinking big: the political imaginationMatthew Flinders and Matt Wood

Index

Review Quotes

Gerry Stoker, University of Canberra, Australia, and University of Southampton, UK

“An excellent group of scholars tackle the complex issue of depoliticisation and leave the reader with still a few puzzles but also a considerable advance in understanding and insight.”

Eva Sørensen, Roskilde University, Denmark

“This important edited volume takes one of the most heated debates among contemporary British students of politics and public policy one step further and provides important theoretical and empirical insights that can qualify further research into the role and function of the political in Western liberal democracies.”

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